I have a t-5 out of an 86 t/a and am swapping that with my 700-r4 soon. Now I have heard that the t-5 is stronger than my 700-r4 but I have lately heard the opposite also. If I were to get it rebuilt and made stronger, what things am I looking at replacing inside to make it hold up? I have a 355 at 518 horse and 570 ft-lbs. I need something pretty heavy duty because I have been ripping the **** out of my 4-spd autos. I have 4.56 gears in a 7.5 10-bolt and drag radials. Anyone with some knowledge that could shed some light on for me please help. I'm new to the whole manual trans world. (and i wanna stick with more than just a 3 spd)

 

the 700-r4 is stronger than the t5. thats why gm never put it behind the l98. i believe its only rated to 320 lb ft. im not sure what you could do to make it stronger... i think many people in your situation would opt for a t56 or a wc t5.....

 

all i can say bud, is that manual trannys are much more fun, but its only my personal oppinion, i dont like automatics, with manual i feel i'm in control.
as of your tranny, your nwct-5 i dont think will last long behind you 500hp. monster, unless your nice to it (you said you aren't), for you...da bes seems to be the tremec TKO, if you can pay for it.
wish you the best of lucks.
Fernando.

 

I am using my world class t-5 behind my 406 right now.... no problems so far just some clutch issues. I only have about 380 horsepower and somewhere around 415 tourqe... i see you have much more power. They say that there isnt much you can do to build up a t5 because it isnt the internals that are weak it is the case that flex's and the gears inside shift and it all goes to hell... i am speaking from what i hear on the boards i havent personally seen this. The most popular choice is to get a 6 speed out of a crashed 4th gen as all those transmissions are tremecs. Or if you want to take your chances with a t5 just dont go dropping your clutch or power shifting becasue that is what kills them...... also you said you have drag radials and 4.56 gears that will kill it too, all those hard launches will snap that thing up. good luck

 

Well we g-teched a buddy of mine's car which ran 16's before and from me driving it, we pulled a low 15 out of it. I shift hard, not really power shiftin but I could ax down an ET pretty well in a manual, and am decently consistant. From what you guys say and what I know of my driving it sounds to me like Im gunna hafta junk my t-5. Anyone got any links to lemme check out these tremecs? How much will I be paying around?

 

here is one...... http://www.thirdgenresource.com/onli...d=2373&cat=909

 

just watching hot rod tv the other day and they started talking about the t-5. they said it could handle as much as 350-400 ft lbs but they also said with that in mind they would shift different. not abuse it as hard. easier on the launch and smooth shifts.

 

well man from my own experience the t-5 wont make it. and even if u had it built that wont help much with the power ur puttin in front of it. i was just in the same situation i love straight drives but i found the t-5 wont hold to my new motor it was falling apart with the old raged 305 that was in it so.... but i was runnin low on cash so i had to throw a th400 in it. but its startin to grow on me. and manual trans for my car was way more than i had at the time so. but with that said i dunno how much u wanna spend but i checked the prices a few months ago and they were high for a tremec. it was like $1700 dollars. then u got the clutch, bellhousing, and all that ****. so if it was me and i was gonna have to spend that i would go with the t-56 which is pretty tuff, or get a richmond. but if u got big money then i would go with a jerico. thats the way to go. but good luck to ya.